Rafael Diaz-Balart

Rafael Diaz-Balart (17 January 1926-6 May 2005) was a Cuban politician who served as the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives under Fulgencio Batista's regime. He was a Progressive Action Party member, and his sons Mario Diaz-Balart and Lincoln Diaz-Balart would enter US politics.

Biography
Rafael Diaz-Balart was born in Banes, Cuba in 1926, and he became the brother-in-law of Fidel Castro after his sister Mirta married him. Diaz-Balart condemned Castro's attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, and he supported Fulgencio Batista's corrupt conservative dictatorship. He became a Senator in 1958 and served as Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, serving as a Progressive Action Party member. In 1959, he went into exile in the United States during the Cuban Revolution, and he died of leukemia in Key Biscayne, Florida in 2005. His sons Mario Diaz-Balart and Lincoln Diaz-Balart both became US politicians in Florida.